deFINEd BINDINGS

The New England Chapter exhibition opened at the Bromfield Gallery last Friday evening in conjunction with the Guild of Book Worker’s annual conference. The opening was well attended… which is quite an understatement as those in attendance can attest. We hope you all can make it over to see the exhibit before it closes on October 29, but there are two other options. The bindings will travel to San Francisco this winter to be displayed at Chronicle Books (specific details will be posted on the chapter blog, of course). And whether or not you see the exhibit at one of the exhibits you will want to purchase a copy of the catalog! The catalog is available from blurb.com for $32.

We would also like to announce the prizes awarded for a few of the bindings. We had hoped to award these at the opening reception but the crowd was overwhelming. The prizes were sponsored by Chronicle Books and North Bennet Street School. Chronicle offered three awards for design: 1st prize to Patty Bruce, 2nd prize to George Sargent, and 3rd prize to Deborah Howe. North Bennet awarded Mark Esser a prize for “exquisite craftsmanship” and offered a prize to Sonya Sheats for “best binding structure.” The North Bennet Street School awards were beautiful handcrafted candle boxes which should make nice tool boxes for the winning binders. The Chronicle awards were generous gift certificates for Chronicle Books. Congratulations to the winning binders and all those in the exhibit, the feedback about your work has been phenomenal. And we would like to once again thank all of the binders who submitted work for consideration. Space limitations forced the jury to eliminate many wonderful bindings and we hope to see many of those exhibited elsewhere in the future.